Sunday 11 July 2010 10.14 EDT
First published on Sunday 11 July 2010 10.14 EDT

So where does this World Cup rank in the pantheon? It's probably a question best asked in a few months' time, when the tournament – like a Christmas Day Shiraz – has had time to breathe, and the essential accomplices, such as Cris Freddi's Complete Book of the World Cup and Fifa's official tournament DVDs, have been called to duty again. My instinct, however, is that this has been a middling-to-decent World Cup, but no more.

As I've argued before in a piece that this article regurgitates heavily, what makes a classic tournament is fiercely subjective. But the following are surely necessities: humdingers that scramble your equilibrium like a check hook to the temple, did-you-see-that individual performances, superb goals, a balance between epic matches and jaw-slumping shocks, a nod to the thrill of the new, and, perhaps most importantly of all, great matches between great teams when it really matters.

South Africa 2010 has had its moments - Germany's shock pummellings of England then Argentina; Ghana's free-running football; Spain, after a stodgy start, showing why they lost just once in 45 matches before the tournament; Brazil's second-half implosion against Holland; Diego Maradona's virtuoso press conferences, the unity of support for the Bafana Bafana – but also its frustrations. The Jabulani beach-ball soaring repeatedly into the stands. The lack of great goals. The vuvuzelas' unilateral sound – a belching didgeridoo – forcefully imposed on every match. Too many teams, particularly in the early stages, regressively stuffing players into their own half, afraid of going forward for fear of allowing too much light in. The average goals per game for the entire tournamenet ended up at 2.27, the lowest ever except for Italia 90 (2.21). And then there was the horrible final.

But what this tournament has had, which was painfully lacking in Korea/Japan and Germany, has been goals in the knockout stages. Excluding the largely irrelevant third-place play-off, there have been 37 of them in 15 matches (an average of 2.46 a game). That's still a decent way behind Mexico 70 (4.71 goals per game) and more recent vintages, such as USA 1994 (2.93 goals a game) and France 98 (2.80 goals per game), but it's a lot better than we've gotten used to.

As I wrote four years ago, in the group stages of Japan/Korea 2002, there were shocks, goals, exciting games – and a scattering shake-up of the world order. France and Argentina, the pre-tournament favourites, humbled, humiliated; South Korea, Senegal and the US holding ambitions that were fantasies two weeks previously. Everyone agrees: this World Cup could go down as a classic. Then, a few hours later, Germany v Paraguay kicks off and cold caution kicks in. The dingy 1-0 sets a precedent; thereafter results read like binary code – 0s and 1s and 1s and 0s – and not much else. In the end there are just 25 goals in 15 knockout games (excluding the irrelevant third-place play-off) and just one classic – Italy v South Korea. And soon another consensus is reached: this World Cup has been dire.

Ditto Germany 2006, where group games were followed by knockout stages characterised by timidity and turgidity. Again there were only 25 goals in 15 games, and only one absolute belter – Italy v Germany. As I wrote at the time, I lived and loved every minute in Germany: the random chats with strangers; the frenetic four-hour blur of match-watching, writing and interviewing; the midnight stagger out of the stadium and into a hotel bed. Even the 7am starts to catch the Deutsche Bahn to a new match in a new city. But while the atmosphere in the country was utterly memorable, the football wasn't. It didn't help that the top five Fifa World Players of the Year for 2005 – Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Adriano and Andriy Shevchenko – all disappointed.

This time round, the football from the last 16 has been more expansive and attacking-minded, and for this reason South Africa 2010 probably sneaks slightly ahead of Japan/Korea 2002 and Germany 2006 in my internal rankings. As I've mentioned previously, others romanticise Italia 90, but for me it was overly cynical and cautious – West Germany were brilliant, especially in their 4-1 demolition of a Yugoslavia side containing Robert Prosinecki, Dejan Savicevic and Dragan Stojkovic, but no one else really was. And, the Germans' spit-soaked 2-1 win over Holland, England's 3-2 win over Cameroon and their epic semi-final with West Germany apart, blockbusters were scarce. However the underrated USA 94 (Romania 3-2 Argentina, Italy 2-1 Nigeria, Italy 2-1 Spain and Bulgaria 2-1 Germany) and France 98 (Nigeria 3-2 Spain, Argentina 2-2 England, Holland 2-1 Argentina and Brazil 1-1 Holland) were a good deal better than this year's vintage.

But of the eight World Cups I've watched, Mexico 86 and España 82 glow warmest of all. Mexico had its plunging lows, as anyone that stayed awake through the twin tediums of West Germany v Morocco and West Germany v Mexico will remember. But they were spectacularly trumped by the magic moments – France 1-1 USSR and Denmark 6-1 Uruguay in the group stages, followed by Belgium 4-3 USSR, Spain 5-1 Denmark, Argentina 2-1 England and, of course, France 1-1 Brazil, a game Pele described as the greatest he'd ever seen.

España 82 wasn't far behind. Even now iconic images linger in the memory: David Narey's wonder-strike against Brazil, and the seleção's sizzling riposte, including Eder's featherduster chip over a statuesque Alan Rough; the creative genius of Zico, Falcao and Socrates; Marco Tardelli's tears in the final. There were great games too, especially in the ultimate group of death, which saw Brazil, Argentina and Italy play winner takes all, as well as a wildly exciting semi-final between West Germany and France. There was dross too, including Italy's grinding group draws and the shabby West Germany v Austria stitch-up, but for me, as a seven-year-old boy, there seemed to be a million moments of awed wonder.

Perhaps that's the key. And World Cups, like Christmases, are always better when you're a kid. But, in 20 years' time, if some young buck hails South Africa as the best they've ever seen, I doubt I'll be joining them.

This article was edited after the final to modify tournament goals stats